NSCN-Centre talks likely next week

Informal discussions between the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) leadership and the Centre's emissary, K Padmanabhaiah, are likely to be held abroad next week.

Formal talks will be held in New Delhi in the next few months, Padmanabhaiah said.

"While it is difficult to put a time-limit as to when the peace accord would be finalised, the climate at present is extremely favourable for working out a settlement," he said.

Asked about reports that the Centre wanted to "disarm" the NSCN (I-M), he said, "The question of laying down arms will arise only when a final settlement is reached... But in the current phase, the question... is not relevant at all."

Padmanabhaiah cited the examples of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Irish Republican Army saying, "They were fighting for a cause, but only when a political settlement is arrived at will they disarm.

"Once a political settlement is reached, an organisation cannot continue as a militant or underground one. But an organisation can continue as a political organisation like in the case of the Mizo National Front."